


Hello, Kitty

by ThisWasInevitable



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Mishaps, Pets, but obvs not canon compliant, indruck, set-post finale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-25
Updated: 2019-09-25
Packaged: 2020-10-28 08:36:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,104
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20775653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThisWasInevitable/pseuds/ThisWasInevitable
Summary: Indrid has been apprehensive about going to Ducks apartment and meeting his cats.It turns out he had good reason to be worried.





	Hello, Kitty

**Author's Note:**

  * For [StarryFishBoneSoup](https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarryFishBoneSoup/gifts).

> A friend on an Indruck discord wanted a fic with this premise. And I can never resist cat-based chaos.

“Duck, my dear?”

“Yeah, ‘Drid.”

“Do you remember me saying I was nervous about coming over to your apartment for the first time?”

“Yep.”

“THIS IS WHY!” Indrid yelps, jumping out of the way just as Ebo, Duck’s black cat, launches herself at him. This results in Indrid toppling backwards, over and off Duck’s well-loved couch. 

Without missing a beat, Indrid sprints into the kitchen, circling to the far side of the table, Ebo jumping off the couch after him. 

Duck, meanwhile, is shaking with baffled laughter. 

“Nice kitty, pleasant feline, please do not attack me againeeeeeeek!” In watching Ebo, Indrid misses Chicken, the Sphinx, planning an attack from the kitchen counter and leaping to cling to his thigh. 

“What in the everlovin fuck has gotten into you two?” Duck grabs Ebo as the stalks across the table towards his boyfriend, who is busy trying to detach Chicken from his pajama pants. 

“I’m so sorry, darlin, they ain’t ever done this before.”

“That, ow, doesn’t, ow, surprise me.” Indrid gets the cat off, holding it as far from himself as possible as it bats it’s front paws at him, “cats in particular seem violently fascinated by me. I think they react to the insectoid part of my nature.”

“Huh, ah stop squirmin fuzzball I don’t wanna drop you.” Both cats remain fixated on Indrid. He sets Chicken down gingerly in the catbed, then hurries back towards the kitchen, this time shoving a chair between himself and the cat. He looks like a lion tamer at the worlds cheapest circus. 

“Stay, please, thank you, I know my name is mothman but that does not mean I am a moth for you to catch and eat you tiny predators!”

Chicken cocks her head. 

“Oh no.”

In two leaps, the cat makes a bee-line for Indrids face and, while he intercepts her in time, she manages to whack his glasses off in the process. 

The sight of what appears, in their feline minds, to be a giant bug in their kitchen sends the cats into a frenzy, Ebo thrashing out of Ducks hold and Chicken clambering on Indrids arm. Indrid is making the high-pitched distress noise Duck recognizes as “help me” as feathers begin flying. After much wrangling, cursing, and shrieking, he grabs both cats by the scruff as Indrid dashes into the bedroom. Plaintive meowing nips at Ducks heels as he sets them down and follows the Sylph. 

He finds no Indrid, just an Indrid-shaped lump under the covers. 

“You in one piece?”

“Yes” Comes the muffled reply. 

“They didn’t scratch you up too much?”

“No.”

Duck settles on the bed, patting the knobby shape of Indrids knee through the blanket.

“Hey, it ain’t the end of the world, darlin. Lord knows we know what that looks like.”

A small laugh, which Duck takes as his cue to ease the blankets so Indrids head appears, though he lets him stay with it wrapped around his shoulders. 

“It’s not the chaos that worried me, since you’re about to ask. It’s just...now that you know the cats go bananas, I believe is the phrase, around me you won’t want me around.”

“That the foresight talkin or you bein worried?”

“Second one” Indrid mumbles. 

Duck takes his hand, squeezing it comfortingly, “You ever have pets. Here or back on Sylvain?”

“No.”

“Then lemme tell you; animals can react all sorts of weird fuckin ways to change. Don’t mean the change is bad, or the person causin it is bad, or that they can’t get used to it. Just means you gotta get creative.”

“And you will help me?”

Duck puts an arm around him, “Darlin, I saved the motherfuckin world; this’ll be a piece of cake.

\----------------------------

It is not a piece of cake. Although there is cake involved, Duck using the promise of funfetti to lure Indrid back to the apartment after a particularly poorly-planned bout of cat taming. 

But he thinks he may finally have a solution.

“What is the tent for?” Indrid asks before he even sees the item in question.

“You” Duck gestures to the small, triangular tent in the corner of the room, “It’s a little drawin spot while you’re here, and a catbed when you ain’t. I think it may help them” he indicates the meowing from under the bedroom door “get used to your scent.”

“I see” Indrid’s gaze goes far off.

“I even made it all cozy for you; go take a look.”

Indrid kneels down, crawls into the tent.

“Oooh! I love this blanket” he pets the rainbow fabric “and this pillow is so squishy. And..shaped like my Sylph form?” 

“Internet's a great thing.”

Indrid clicks the string of battery operated fairy lights Duck hung in it, starts making himself comfortable.

“Even if this doesn’t work, this was very nice of you. Thank you, my sweet.”

“You’re welcome” He kneels down to kiss Indrid through the flaps of the tent, “you’re important to me, I want you to have a space here.”

Duck keeps an eye out over the next few weeks when it’s just him and the cats, notices them taking to the tent just as Indrid did. There’s already been some improvement; they no longer attack him as soon as he steps into the house, but they still seem confused by and wary of him. 

It’s when they’re watching a movie, cuddled together on the couch, that it happens. There's a “tump” as Chicken hops up to join them. But instead of sitting and staring fixedly at Indrid from Ducks lap, he plops down into Indrids lap, kneading at the blanket.

Indrid is holding so still Duck has to look closely to make sure he’s breathing. 

“What do I do?” He whispers

“Pet her, goofus.”

“No, then she might remember I am a moth.” He still isn’t moving.

Duck reaches over, scritching her ears. Ebo jumps into his lap with a “mrrrp” and he switches his attention to her.

As the movie flickers onscreen, from the corner of his eye he sees Indrids hand slowly lift and come to rest on Chicken’s back. When the cat doesn’t leap or scratch at him, Indrid hazards a few light pats. 

“Pleasant feline.” He murmurs.

Chickens eyes shut, and soon a purr is rumbling from Indrids lap. It’s shortly joined by a slightly stranger purr coming from Indrid himself. Duck smiles, adjusts as Indrid curls closer (and the cats nestle further into the fabric). 

He’s sure there will be other mishaps, other things that they’ll have to figure out.

But they’re growing together. They’re making progress.

And sometimes, that’s enough.


End file.
